George Copeland (April 3, 1882 – June 16, 1971) was an American classical pianist known primarily for his relationship with the French composer Claude Debussy in the early 20th century and his interpretations of modern Spanish piano works.

A native of Massachusetts, George A. Copeland Jr. began piano studies as a child with Calixa Lavallée, a music critic, champion of American music, and prolific composer of children's pedagogical music. Copeland later worked at the New England Conservatory with Carl Baermann.

While still a student in Boston in the late 1890s, Copeland formed a duo with cellist T. Handasyd Cabot (of the Cabot family). Copeland's first performance of a piece by Debussy in January 1904 was a shared recital with Cabot in which they also played the Cello Sonata No. 1 by Brahms. A month after this performance, they appeared as a trio with Karel Ondříček, a concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and member of the Kneisel Quartet.

Copeland traveled to Europe to study with Giuseppe Buonamici in Florence. While in Europe, he also studied with Teresa Carreño in Berlin. Copeland returned to the United States in the spring of 1903; a year later, Copeland was coached in either Boston or Paris by the English-American pianist Harold Bauer, concentrating on the works of Robert Schumann. Bauer was considered a Schumann specialist at the time, and would later publish his own edition of the complete piano music of Schumann for G. Schirmer. Copeland only performed two pieces of Schumann on his programs: the Symphonic Studies, Op. 13 and Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26. The former work was commonly found in his concerts before the 1920s, and he recorded the latter piece in the early 1960s; the recording is available on the Pearl CD "Piano Masters: George Copeland" (PRL 0121).

Copeland became an Iberian specialist, performing works of Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, and others throughout the United States and Europe. In 1909, he introduced three of Albéniz's Iberia suite to the United States, playing "El Albaicín," "Malaga", and "Triana" in Boston. He quickly dropped these works from his repertoire, only including "El Polo" from the "Iberia" suite in his programs.

On January 15, 1904, Copeland gave one of the earliest-known performance of Debussy's piano works in the United States, playing the Deux Arabesques at Steinert Hall in Boston. Copeland was not the first to perform Debussy in the United States; that honor went to Helen Hopekirk, a Scottish pianist who programmed the Deux Arabesques in Boston in 1902. A survey of his programs shows that from the first time he programmed the Deux arabesques, he performed at least one work of Debussy at every recital he played for the remainder of his life.

In 1911, he met Debussy in Paris and spent several months studying with the composer, discussing and playing all of Debussy's piano works. This was a turning point in Copeland's life; until his death 60 years later, Copeland would recall his time with Debussy with the greatest affection and reverence, both in print and in conversation with friends. In 1913, Copeland gave the following account of their discussions:

"I have never heard anyone play the piano in my life who understood the tone of every note as you do," remarked Debussy. "Come again tomorrow." This seemed praise indeed and I did go tomorrow. I found him much more genial than on my first visit, and then I went time after time, until finally I was with him about twice a week for three months. I bought new copies of his works, which he marked for me; I played his works and he criticized my work and showed me what to do and how to do it. In the end, he admitted that I played him just as he wanted to be played and represented to the people.